Today! Today is a Sunday when most people wind their way to churches. To sit and listen to an inspirational sermon, or maybe one of conviction. Both to try to bring us a closer understanding of who God is. To ease our conscious of this that we did wrong or we perceived were wrong. To right a wrong.
Others finish chores before their work begins. Dishes done, laundry folded, kid’ homework finished for the next week.
Always something to do, to keep us distracted. Distracted from what it truly important. And I ask what is important. What are we missing in the time when work and school is put on hold for two days. How bout a little peace?
How bout a little down time to reflect on what we did this past week?
Not so much on what we accomplished but did we help someone.
Did we even notice if someone needed something?
Did we hear their pain when speaking to them? The pain etched around their eyes that they tried to hide with a smile and “I’m fine.”
Or in our own pain not see someone else’s. Did we let our own worries and fears cloud us from seeing someone else’s? I know that there are days that I can diffidently say I did not see or want to see. So all-consuming was my own pain.
But this is not to beat us up but to offer a way of peace.
Nature! In all its glory!
It is there for us to pause a moment to reflect that there is something more than all the pain.
Something that is beautiful and breathtaking. All we have to do is open our eyes. Maybe look up to the sky; even down to the ground.
God’s creation is all around us. We only need to open ourselves to this beauty and then the worries fade for a moment, the pain is eased for a while. Maybe a hurt can be soothed and allowed to start to heal. If we only look. Look at the trees, the ground, the rocks, the ants, the spiders, the sky, the snow, all around us is a beauty that is there waiting to be appreciated.
I have tried to capture some of those things here. Take a moment and reflect on God’s creation.
A Heart for Alaska 